Win XP home shuts down and starts itself

The problem above caused my computer to crash and not be able to be rebooted. Not possible to boot in safe mode or any other way. Repair console did not work and the compaq recovery disk would only help if I wiped the hard drive. Wanting to save my files I re-installed XP home (legal), but the only way I could do it was to install on the D: drive, because it would wipe the C: drive if I re-installed on it. I now have a corrupt XP on the C: drive and a new, almost worthless version on the D: drive. All my files are safe but almost none of my programs work: Had to reconfig network and internet, Printer software can't be found, No spyware, firewall or virus protection can be run, and I am supposed to activate XP (again). Since nothing can be found by the new OS I'm not sure MS will recognize that this is a re-install and not a bootleg, so I have 30 days to figure this out. Everything on the C: drive is invisable to the new XP os. When I tried to install from my XP update disk it said there was no OS on the computer so I had to get an old copy of win98 and install that first to get XP to install.

Is there something I can do to get C: drive fixed and then delete the XP on the d: drive? Or should I try to re-install Nero and put everything on CDs and do a fresh install of 98 and then XP?

Computer
Operating System Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
OS Service Pack None
Internet Explorer 6.0.2600.0000 (IE 6.0 - Windows XP)
Computer Name MAIN
User Name Bran
Logon Domain MAIN

Motherboard
CPU Type AMD Athlon-PECM, 1200 MHz (6 x 200)
Motherboard Name Compaq Compaq PC
Motherboard Chipset VIA VT8364(A) Apollo KL133(A) / VT8365(A) ProSavage KM133(A)
System Memory 503 MB (SDRAM)
BIOS Type Compaq (03/28/02)
Communication Port Communications Port (COM1)
Communication Port ECP Printer Port (LPT1)

Display
Video Adapter nVIDIA GeForce4 MX 4000 <<<not recognized
Video Adapter S3 Savage4
3D Accelerator nVIDIA GeForce4 MX 4000 <<< not working
3D Accelerator S3 Savage4

Multimedia
Audio Adapter VIA AC'97 Audio Controller [H]

Storage
Floppy Drive Floppy disk drive
Disk Drive WDC WD600AB-60BVA0
Optical Drive Compaq DVD-ROM DVD-116 (16x/40x DVD-ROM)
Optical Drive LITE-ON LTR-32123S (32x/12x/40x CD-RW)

Partitions
C: (FAT32) 36344 MB (12608 MB free)
D: (FAT32) 20875 MB (13726 MB free)

Input
Keyboard HID Keyboard Device
Keyboard Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural PS/2 Keyboard
Mouse Logitech USB iFeel Mouse
Mouse PS/2 Compatible Mouse

Network
Primary IP Address 192.168.1.100
Primary MAC Address 00-00-C5-B5-3C-F4
Network Adapter Realtek RTL8139 Family PCI Fast Ethernet NIC (192.168.1.100)

 

So meaning your D: drive working with XP?
if D: drive is working can you reboot in safemode
one thing also
im thinking the problem is one of your CPU fan
maybe one of them are not orking properly
try to check it

 

Good advice, but is the drive being recognized at all?
You mention all of the files on the C;\ drive are invisible. Do you see the C:\ drive in the explorer when you boot XP on the D:\ drive?
Please let us know! Thanks

 

I haven't tried the repair fix but the c: drive and contents are visable to me and I can go in and run some programs, that is how I am posting; I was able to start firefox but without any extras or bookmarks I had previously. When I went to re-install XP the computer said no operating system was recognized, that's why I had to do a win 98 install before using my upgrade XP disk. I can try the repair, never knew it existed. lol When I did the XP install, both C: and D: were shown on the prompts, but I was warned that setting up XP on C: could possibly cause problems. I wasn't able to fully install win98 either. When I got to the license key it told me that the key was wrong, but I retrieved it from the case and know that it is correct. After the failed attempt to install 98, the XP upgrade disk worked. Can I still do the repair with the second XP installed or should I wait?

 

Don't know how I did it, but I managed to lose most of my personal files. Could have been the 6 hours of transferring files to two other computers. Repair on C: wouldn't work, couldn't locate C:. So I did the reformat in NTFS and everything is up and running, albeit a lot less files than I had. Another few days and i should have everything back in shape. Thank you for your help. The main problem may have come from "limewire." My youngest installed it a couple weeks ago and didn't tell anyone. The inside was a little dusty but not enough to cause problems.

 

Thank you. I use all of these programs and have run them again since reformatting. I think my daughter downloaded something and didn't scan it before opening. I know there is a lot of meanies on p2p networks.

 

"When I went to re-install XP the computer said no operating system was recognized, that's why I had to do a win 98 install before using my upgrade XP disk."

A bit of info you may find useful when installing from an XP Upgrade disk. Whenever I have used an XP Upgrade disk on a a partition or drive with no O/S, I was prompted that there is no recognized O/S. It then asked to insert an O/S disk. You can then insert any Microsoft O/S disk (95, 98, me, etc.) and after it reads the disk it will prompt you to re-insert the XP Upgrade disk. This saves you the time and aggravation of having to fully install the other O/S first.